Ok it seems a few chill pills are in order in here, on both sides of the fence. In amongst the rubbish and namecalling there are a few salient points to note:- If you think someone is a troll, you can be one of two things: right or wrong. Best not to feed them just in case.- If you just cant help yourself at feeding time, make use of the friend/foe functions, they are there for a reason and work well- Use the report post function where you feel its appropriate. If you report a post, don't respond to it and in particular dont quote it. The moderators will deal with it as they see fit

Hopefully this is enough to get this thread back on topic and above board. If it isnt the padlock will come out, and I (nor the other mods) really don't want that and i'm sure the genuine contributors in here don't want it either. Play nice please

newie wrote: I couldn't sleep the night before and struggled to eat properly on the day. Anyway, you learn a lot about yourself when preparing for, participating in, and in the aftermath of events like these.

this is normal - i hardly slept the night before my first AAC. it's just experience, once you've done it a couple of times you become more relaxed. fitz's epic is a worthy challenge - i would like to give that a go too.

Thanks. I know I put far too much pressure on myself for the ride. I had trouble sleeping last year too (but I think that was as much due to the couple in the next room doing the horizontal tango into the early hours).

It is funny, before this ride I told myself that once it was done, I was never going to do anything like this again. Just go back to cruising around and riding for no other reason but fun. But seeing all those super-fit people down in Bright and hearing people's stories on here acts like a bit of an inspiration. I have improved a lot over the past 3 years, but I want to keep getting better myself. I just need to figure out the best way to get the right balance of fun and challenge into my riding.

My plan was to return and knock a bit of time off the 250 ride. Knowing the course and what to expect would be a key factor. I was also hoping to be a bit lighter and fitter.

Well...

Firstly I lost an entire month of training in the middle of the year to work. I'm a professional sport coach/manager in another sport and some of my athletes were targeting a key event overseas. This took a lot of my time, was fun, and we did well. Zero training, too much drinking...

Then in late November and early December my immediate family started to get ill, then die. Two of them. I know for a fact that you can get a "two for one" funeral at a discount! I know that grandma and dad would have gotten the joke had they been there to see it. We had a double feature including 'newsreel'. Multiple flights to and from Australia (I'm based in HK) cost plenty of money and time, but at least now I'm a Silver frequent flyer.

I was to spend all of January in Melbourne helping mum deal with stuff, so finally I was getting training in. I hit Frankston, St Andrews and the Boulevard and put on 1000km in no time. I might not have been where I had planned to be, but I was confident I could take about an hour total off my time (30mins of riding, 30mins of rest). I even had a small print out of my various times to key locations laminated and ready to stick to the top tube to keep me on track.

Then the fires got in the way.

To the guy above who wasn't happy - I came from Hong Kong. Suck it in. And as an event organiser I know that a big % of the money is already spent prior to the day, so refunds are not a reality.

I was glad to still be doing something and the organisers should be praised for finding a Plan B. Much better than cancelling.

The course was to me much harder than the ACE loop. Going up and down 3 times lacked the variety of the full course and I think was very limiting for a person who is not a great climber. Three long slogs, few breaks.

First lap was fine. Bit worried on the way down as a number of the 200 riders and the 6am start 250 riders were over the white line at times.

Second lap was harder. Quicker start out of Bright (small stop to give a tube to a 200 rider who had suffered multiple flats), but the middle part of the climb was tougher. Kept thinking 'I really do need another gear' and finally looked down to realise that I actually did have another gear! DOLT! I'd been in the 26t when I could have had the 28t!

Second descent wasn't fun. Mix of overtaking slow/inexperienced riders and in turn being overtaken by some much faster and more experienced guys. Some would call clearly, others would buzz by and startle you. If I had to have one complaint, it would be this: way too many riders of different skill levels on the road at once. Dangerous mix.

Third lap started fine and I was a lot stronger than a few around me. Couple of guys cramping and not having fun, so I wasn't surprised to see some decide to pull out at the water stops. I was just plain tired.

Approaching the top I was told by the outrider motorbike that I was 'Lantern Rouge', however any possible joy at getting a prize or accolade of any type was short lived. At Dingo Dell I was told that I wasn't going to make the cut off for Cresta. I was pretty sure I could have done the distance and still hit Bright on time, but the timing at Cresta was going to stop. Another 5-10mins...

After a stop at Dingo Dell I hit the downward leg. I had to have a quick stretch half way down as my shoulders and neck were really sore. The new Lantern Rouge passed me here, but I was ahead of the last man in the 200 event as I had left Dingo Dell with him and (by his own admission) wasn't much of a descender.

Back on the flat I was able to find the power to push back to Bright, overtaking the 250 Lantern Rouge on the way.

3rd last home, a few mins ahead of the Lantern Rouges for the 250 and 200 (who crossed the line together).

Not a fun course. Certainly harder than the full 250 loop. Pretty sure that I would have met my target if we didn't have the course change.

madmarsupial wrote:To the guy above who wasn't happy - I came from Hong Kong. Suck it in. And as an event organiser I know that a big % of the money is already spent prior to the day, so refunds are not a reality.

madmarsupial wrote:To the guy above who wasn't happy - I came from Hong Kong. Suck it in. And as an event organiser I know that a big % of the money is already spent prior to the day, so refunds are not a reality.

What events do you organise ?

Just so I know not to have anything to do with them.

Jim - a couple of well spoken people have already posted at length why your opinion is roundly considered a bit unreasonable, so I won't repeat it all. Scroll back and re-read. I'm with them.

I mostly organise rowing and outrigger canoe events, but luckily for you I'm not in Australia. We are NFP as well, so refunds are not always possible. There a big clauses in all our entries warning that cancellations due to things like the weather (a key feature of water sports) are just 'part of the sport' and there will not be refunds. If we cancel for other reasons we often refund (but often in these cases we are further out from the event and haven't incurred certain expenses yet).

Yes:- I would have liked to have done the full event. - I had a lot of expenses tied up in the event.- I would not have come if I had known of the change further out (but not possible)- I would have appreciated an offer of a refund on my entry upon the notification of the change

However:- I was happy to give it a go anyway- I understand that some things are out of the control of the organisers- I appreciate the risks and difficulties in major event planning

Jim, you have quite clearly never organised a big event. You'd be a bit quieter if you had done...

jimsheedy wrote:I had until wonder boy here decided to drag it up again.

And I am well within my right to complain.

Wonder Boy is indeed wondering why he mentioned it!

I'll phrase it differently to Jules...

You were wrong, continue to be, and will remain so. You have a right to complain, but you are on a road trip to nowhere and are only making yourself look like more of a tit. Sometimes you need to 'own' a mistake or misjudgement and just cop the results.

I'm sure that you are a lovely person in real life, but your online persona indicates that you are young and inexperienced in management. Luckily you'll grow out of it as you get older.

So you're an events coaching management guru which I would imagine requires good skills in communication and judgement?

Yet you choose, after reading all the preceding posts, including a moderater's warning to drop this nonsense, to pick up the thread including the personal attack on me, over two weeks since the last post on the topic and a month since the moderater posted the warning ?

You'll of course be taking your own counsel and "owning" your misjudgement in this area no doubt

But while we're here please indulge me. I was just wondering, cause im such a young immature inexperienced tit. You agreed I was right to air my dissent about the handling of the situation regarding the ACE 250 ride but then you say I need to own my mistake or misjudgement. So your saying I made a mistake by signing up and paying for the Audax ride? Very confusing. You sure you're not putting on Grateful Dead concerts on the side ? Sampling a bit of the cordial ?

One more thing. When one gets to be a big management events guru like yourself, Is that when you give yourself a funny name like madmarsupial, so you can post anonymously on internet forums?

You are quite right on this Jim. I did make a mistake to put in a throw away comment about the earlier complaints and discussion. I was merely highlighting that some others had come a lot further and had greater expenses - but yet still managed to have fun and see the bigger picture.

It was not an attack - you seriously do need to get over yourself. No one has attacked you. If anything they have been pretty damn patient with you.

Mods and everyone else - sorry for waking the issue up. Last post.

Your misjudgement was not that you didn't like the handling of the event, the course change or the lack of a refund. Your misjudgement was to be seriously rude and trash on the work of volunteers and also to think only of yourself despite clear explanations of what was going on and discussion of what is truly reasonable and possible with an event of this type. I'm sure that no one wanted the changes or was particularly happy with it - but I imagine that most people can at least grumble a quiet acceptance of what was done and move on.

For the record, I have a funny screen name to preserve some privacy in the online world and to separate public, professional and personal activities. It is a good idea for the silly or nasty thing you say to your mates in the pub after a few schooners usually stops there, but online it follows you around forever. Employers do use search companies to find this stuff.

Back to the riding: I'll be back for next year's event if I can wrangle the time off work and can afford the flights etc. Have bold plans for new steel bike if our team sponsor is still extending the discount deal to the slow end of the club.

Have my official times and plotted the graph as per Jules. Not sure how to post a picture here at the moment though...

First lap clearly the quickest with the second being slowest. I must have gone too close to the timing mat on my way out of Cresta on the second lap so I have a neat record of how long I rested there! The long rest is a big part of why that lap is the slowest.

I'll dig the same timing points from the Garmin and produce a 'ride time only' graph.